At the turn of 1910-1911there is a new grouping, which formed the active artists. "Jack of Diamonds" - so it was called. As part of the famous painters P. Konchalovsky, I. Mashkov, A. Lentulov, A. Kuprin, R. Falk, this society existed until 1916. Later, these figures became famous masters of Russian art. "Jack of Diamonds" - an association that, in the presence of its exhibitions, collections of articles, statutes, influenced the formation and development of Soviet art of the early twentieth century. Further in the article we will find out how the work of the group went, what directions in painting were touched upon.
What are the goals pursued by society?The primary task of the creators of the "Jack of Diamonds" group was to overcome impressionism in all its forms. This direction is the starting point of creative development and at the same time the method by which the painters declared themselves and their work. Representatives of the Jack of Diamonds express dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in Soviet art: they are fiercely fighting the stylism of the World of Art and the psychologism of painting Blue Rose, rejecting everything related to mystery and understatement in art. The dissatisfaction of young painters with the way things were in the art of that time had a basis: Tsarism in Russia reached its peak, clearly manifested during the revolution (1905-1907) and during the years of reaction (1907-1910).
Противопоставляя свои тенденции символизму "Blue Rose", "Jack of Diamonds" (artistic association) makes efforts to decisively express the movement from focusing on personal sensations. The creators of society seek to ensure the stability of the visual image, full sound colors, the constructive logic of building a picture. Rejecting spatiality and affirming the object and subject, the representatives of the "Jack of Diamonds" direction, thus, emphasize their credo in the development of Soviet art.
Still life as the main type of painting goes onforeground. The artist Mashkov (1881-1944), one of the founders of the group, vividly and figuratively embodied in his works of art the controversial tasks of the creative work of the Jack of Diamonds. The painting of this painter "Blue plum" - a kind of motto direction. The view of the depicted fruit, laid in a stable, fixed, expressive composition, creates the appearance of fading in the middle of the transition: the raw material of rich colors did not have time to turn into a real color of nature. An artist is comparable to an artisan doing things. A painter who paints a painting-thing comes closer to folk art. "The Jack of Diamonds" is an artistic association, thanks to which the meaning of high art has returned to the genre still life, capable of conveying other content, consonant with controversial modernity.
Forced at first by painters"The Jack of Diamonds" cult of decorative art differed from the painting of Cezanne. Pictures of masters had weak sculptural sensations of form. In an effort to focus on the materiality of objects, the artists paid more attention to the image of the massiveness of the object, and the space at this moment looked blurry and fuzzy. Cubism helped to cope with this difficulty - the flow of painting recommended by Cezanne. It was he who suggested using geometric shapes - a cube, a cone, a ball - to mentally analyze complex shapes, bringing them closer to the figures. "Jack of Diamonds" in his work resorted to using this technique. Konchalovsky (1916) with his picture "Agave" demonstrates the option of studying the experience of this direction. This is one of the ways analyzing spatial relationships. Objects in a broken, deformed form crystallize from the space of the painting, which is thought of as some object. Things conquer the surrounding space, pushing it out. It brings a sense of drama. Things distant, hostile towards the person, protect the conquered place.
From the middle of 1910together with cubism, as an important component of the Jack of Diamonds style, begins to use futurism. This famous direction originated in Italy. While marching in step with the era of scientific and technological revolution, this trend pushed for the introduction of industrial rhythms into the works of artists. With the help of the "montage" technique, the view is taken of single or grouped objects or their parts, which seem to have been taken from different points of view and at different times. An object moving spontaneously, capable of bizarre modifications, transfers the movement of the subject (the viewer) onto itself. Paintings-panel A.V. Lentulova (1882-1943) "Ringing" (1915) and "St. Basil the Blessed" (1913) contain an example of an effective combination of cubic "shift" of forms and stratification of spatial plans.
